Chapter 23: Lyell

Infinity

I didn't know where Charlie was or what he was doing, but mom and I decided to just walk home and wait for him there. As we approached our home, I noticed that there were candles lined up on the kitchen windowsill. Only one person could have put them there. Mom and I picked up our pace and practically ran into the kitchen where we found Maisie, completely unfrozen, enjoying a cup of tea. She looked up at us and smiled. "Good evening, dears. You look positively frozen. Have some tea!" Mom let out a sob and threw her arms around her, almost causing Maisie to spill her tea.

When Charlie and Uncle Paton came home, Maisie had already had dinner set out and cooked. Grandma Bone was nowhere to be found. She knew that she had lost yet again and was sulking from somewhere else in the house. Everything was normal and everyone was laughing. It seemed that I was the only one out of mom and Maisie that knew that we were enchanted, but that might have been because I had only been affected for a week. Mom and Maisie had been affected for several weeks.

Uncle Paton began to tell Mom about everything that had happened with dad. She told him that he had been hypnotized by Manfred and all of their memories had been altered by Salem (Which came as a shock to Maisie because he was "such a nice and handsome boy"). Charlie finally told us who dad had thought he was and where he had been the whole time. He was Mr. Pilgrim, the man who had been giving me piano lessons every single day. My father had been teaching me how to play the piano. They assigned me to that class so they could sit back and laugh.

"Infinity was persistent. She had it figured out a few times." Someone said from the doorway. We all jumped at the voice that I knew well. Salem stood there, looking awful. He was pale and looked like he had lost some weight. "Not much can get by her. She's perceptive. They had so much faith in me wiping her memory that they actually put her in classes with him. They sat back and laughed every single day as father and daughter sat side by side, playing the piano. They got an even bigger hoot when they watched him try to figure out how he knew either Charlie or Infinity." He leaned up against the doorframe. "The night of the Grand Ball, she and Lyell ran into each other. Whenever the clock tower chimes, Lyell gets a bit of his memory back until it finishes. And he recognized Infinity. Actually… he recognized Amy. He thought she was Amy. You asked me to get rid of that memory. You didn't want to know who he was if there was nothing you could do about it." He looked at the vial of tears that mom held in her hand. "Now there's something you can do about it. But you have to do it exactly right. My help to you is telling you where Lyell will be. At Midnight, Lyell will be in the academy chapel. I'll make sure the doors are open. That's all I can do for you. My endowment is gone. I have become weak. Unlike Manfred, mine was not placed with a new, even more powerful one. I'm washed up." He gave a faint smile and looked over at Charlie. "That is why I turned down your invitation to be at the tree. I would have been useless to you. Not because I didn't want you to find your father." He turned to leave but Uncle Paton called out to him.

"Salem, my dear boy. Do you wish to get out of that academy? Away from your father and brother?" He asked. I wondered where he was going with this. "We have found your grandfather, a friend of Lyell's. Bartholomew Bloor. I told him about you and he would very much like to meet you."

Salem stopped and looked back at us. "Bartholomew? I was told that he had died in an avalanche."

"He's alive and well. You'll be safe with him. I will take you there now. I'm sure Charlie and Infinity will find a way to get into the academy."

Just before midnight we set out to leave the house and were stopped by none other than Grandma Bone. "Where do you think you are going at this hour?" She asked.

"To go get your son." Uncle Paton said triumphantly. "You thought you were so diabolical and cunning, hiding him right under everyone's very noses. Well, we know where is now and the kids are going with Amy to bring him home."

Salem and Paton got into Paton's car, ready to make the journey to where this Bartholomew Bloor (that had I had never heard about until now) resided and Salem gave my mother the keys to his car so we could drive to Bloor's. I honestly didn't even know that my mother could drive. She didn't own a car because they were so expensive and I had never seen her take Uncle Paton's. She was a cautious driver in the snow and kept murmuring "I can't believe this is real" under her breath as we approached the academy slowly. We didn't drive onto the property. We wanted to be as quiet as possible on the off chance that maybe the doors were still unlocked from when Salem left.

What we got was even better. The doors leading to the cathedral were wide open. There were leaves on the flagstones and bits of snow. The door had been open for a while and the sound of organ music carried on the air. My heart was ready to beat out of my chest. I couldn't even imagine how mom and Charlie felt. I had never known Lyell, and it wasn't until recently that I learned that he was my father. Ailwyn had been great to me, even if he worked a lot. I always felt love from him and he was always supportive. I missed him dearly and would always see him as a father, but I knew Lyell would be a great dad too. I didn't detest them for putting me up for adoption. They had thought they were doing the right thing by giving me to someone that was family, someone that they thought would stay around.

I felt someone squeeze my hand and looked over. Charlie had taken both mine and mom's hands. The smile on his face was huge. He had told people his father was alive and that he would find him. He finally did it and he was proud of himself, just as he should be. Charlie never gave up. We walked into the chapel together, and as soon as my mother set eyes on dad, she began to call out his name, running down the aisle. Charlie and I followed. When we came to a stop behind him, he turned and looked at us. He was bemused. "Do I know you?" He asked. The cathedral clock began to strike twelve. Charlie reached into his pocket and pulled out a little glass vial. He uncorked the top and held it out to him. "For me?" Dad asked. "What do I do with it?"

Both Charlie and I stared at each other. We hadn't gotten that far. Charlie opened his mouth to speak a figure stepped from behind the cathedral and slapped the vial from Charlie's hand. Manfred Bloor sneered at us with a look of triumph in his face. "That's the end of your little game, Charlie Bone." He kicked the broken bottle away.

I couldn't control the anger and hatred that spewed out of my body. I reached forward, ready to curse someone for the first time. I had swore to never use hurtful magic, but Manfred Bloor needed to die. Just as I was about to release my fury, the sound of rustling leaves made me stop. I lowered my hands and watched as the autumn colored leaves began to swirl in the shapes of leopards. They were not some illusion, they were real live leopards and they were ready to tear someone apart.

Manfred let out a yelp of fear and ran around the pews as they let out a thunderous roar. They chased him out of the chapel and over the chimes, a single dreadful scream could be heard followed by silence.

"Oh Lyell…" Mom let out a sob. "Will you ever wake up?"

I couldn't bear to look at anyone. I stared out the door and wondered if Manfred was dead. "Ouch!" I heard someone exclaim from behind me. I turned to see my father crouched on the ground, holding his bleeding finger. He had cut it on the glass. He brought it to his mouth to suck the blood away. He slowly stood up and a glimmer of something could be seen in his eye. "Charlie…" He looked at my brother. "Infinity." He gave me a smile. When his eyes fell on my mother, he didn't say a word. His eyes filled with tears and they embraced each other. I could feel my own eyes filling with tears as I reached for Charlie and hugged tightly.

"You're so brave, Charlie. I couldn't have asked for a better brother. I'm sorry I didn't help more."

"Children." My father's voice made us let go of each other and look at him. "Let's go home. We have so much to talk about."

We walked out of the chapel, completely forgetting about Manfred. Blood painted the snow and he lay in a heap on the ground. Part of me wanted to leave him there. He deserved it. I stopped and stared at him. He was going to bleed out. There was no way for him to survive. "Infinity, don't look." Mom tried to pull me away.

"I can't let him die." I found myself saying. "I can't do that to Salem. And if he dies, imagine what they'll do to Asa. What they'll try to do to us." I crouched down next to him in the snow and stopped his bleeding. "He's going to need blood." I wrapped my fingers around his wrist. His pulse was weak. I looked up at my father who was seeing me use my endowment for the first time. Pride filled his eyes. "Go home. Get away from this place." I instructed. "I will be home, but I need to handle this."

I expected a fight and did not get one. I knew Dr. Bloor would be heading outside to see if Manfred was successful. I hoped that he had a cellphone on him. I looked at Manfred's torn and lacerated face and throat. I was covered in his blood. When Dr. Bloor and Mr. Weedon opened the door. They only saw me holding someone covered in blood. They assumed it was my father and had triumphant smiles on their faces until they realized what had happened. They resorted to horror and anger. Dr. Bloor was yelling and Mr. Weedon ran to find a phone.

"What did you do to my son?" He screamed at me.

"I saved his life!" I yelled back. "He'll live and only because of me. He's lucky." I placed my hand over his face, fighting off any infection that may have gotten into his open wounds.

"You're healing him then? Completely?"

"Not at all. I want him to remember what being evil and nasty gets him. I want to remind all of you." His breathing was slowing. The trauma to his throat was too much. I managed to do a little repair, so his vocal chords wouldn't completely go to shit and he wouldn't need a breathing stoma. I put my mouth to his and gave him oxygen. The thought of doing this made me feel ill, but it was the only way to make sure he didn't get permanent brain damage from lack of oxygen. "In case you decide to go after my father, remember that what I give, I can also take away."

When the EMTs and paramedics arrived, they asked how the accident had happened. "Leopards." I said, but they didn't believe me. The wounds were obviously claw marks of a large animal, a beast way larger than what Asa could become. They commended me on keeping him alive and had taken me to ride in the ambulance with them. Halfway to the hospital, he regained consciousness and began to panic. "Manfred, you need to hold still." I said coldly. "You can't speak. Your vocal chords are lacerated and they are giving you oxygen."

Suddenly, his eyes rolled backwards and he began to go into shock. "Shit." The EMT began to work on him, slapping his face and trying to keep him conscious.

I placed my hands on his face and tried to regulate everything in him that I could, but it was taking all of my energy. The reason I wanted to go to medical school was to help people. I would never be a miracle doctor though. My endowment had its limits and I was pushing them. I had to stop helping him and let the EMTs do their job. I promised myself I would stop after they were able to relax him.

"You…you're one of those freaky Bloor's kids too, aren't you?" The EMT looked at me. "You healed him with your hands."

"Yeah. I can't do all of your jobs though." I snapped back. I didn't like being referred to as freaky. I glared at him and a hint of recognition appeared on his face.

"You're that girl." He said, surprised. "The one I picked up from the academy last winter. You were in a coma for months and got up and walked out of the hospital the day you woke up. There was speculation that this guy-" he motioned to Manfred. "Did this to you. Yet you're helping him."

"I'm not like him." I said simply.

When we got to the hospital, Manfred was immediately sent back to the OR while Dr. Bloor had to fill out paperwork. It was late and not many people were around, so many calls had to be made and many on call doctors would have to come in. One of the doctors came walking through the sliding doors. Dr. Dobinski ended up taking me home that night after I told him everything that I knew. He told me he would call Zelda in the morning and that I should probably expect a call from her as well.

I thanked him for everything and headed into the house. It was 2 in the morning by the time I made it up the steps and inside. No one in the house had even thought about sleep. Everyone was crowded in the kitchen with the exception of Grandma Bone. I assumed that she had gone to her sister's for the night. I sat down at the table between my brother and Uncle Paton with heavy eyes. I was exhausted. I wondered how long it would be before I could use my endowment again.

"Infinity, are you alright?" Maisie asked me, sliding a cup of tea in front of me. "We've been worried. You're absolutely covered in blood."

"I'm fine and Manfred will live. But I can't help but to feel like I made a mistake. The backlash of this will be fierce. They'll come after us again. They're going to hurt Asa and they might even hurt Salem." I sighed. It was a long and emotional night. I was tired and the tears began to fall.

"Either way, we will suffer. They would have been more reckless coming after us if Manfred would have been killed. I think you did a very good thing, Infinity." My father spoke to me and took my hand from across the table. "Salem is safe as long as he is with Bartholomew. Nothing can touch him. I don't know what we can do for your friend Asa, but we can figure something out. And as for me, you don't have to worry about me or your mother. We have decided to leave town for a little bit."

I froze. "What? We just got you back. You can't leave." Charlie spoke my thoughts.

"We have to. At least until I get my full memory back. There's something very important that I misplaced that is very much wanted. I can't lose that information. It's too important. So we're going to go out onto the sea where they can't find us."

Out onto the sea. This was enough to send me into get my heart pumping and feel an overwhelming sense of dread. I slammed my fist onto the table. "You'll die out there! The sea is dangerous. There wasn't even supposed to be a storm that day but my father's boat was still destroyed and he is dead." I felt strange talking about my adopted father with my biological father, but I needed him to know what happened. "The only father I knew is dead, the woman I thought was my mother abandoned me as soon as she could and now you two are leaving too." I left the table, went up to my room and slammed the door. I ripped off all of my bloodstained clothes and threw them on the hamper. I quickly changed into clean clothes before I curled up in my bed and buried my face into my pillow.

It wasn't long before someone came up after me. I honestly wanted to be left alone for a little bit, but with everything that had happened recently, I knew that wouldn't happen. I heard a short knock at my door before it opened. My father walked in and sat down on my bed. "It's my fault you had to go live with them." He said solemnly. "Your mother and I were careless and stupid and you were the one who suffered because I was selfish. I knew this woman named Titania. I didn't know it at first, but she was in love with me. She pretended to be a good friend and confidant whenever I went and told her that Amy was having a baby. She told me that we wouldn't be able to handle it, that Amy and I would resent each other forever and no matter what, our relationship wouldn't work out and our poor child would be in the middle of it. She suggested adoption. I talked to Amy about it and that's when Lily offered to take her. I didn't know Titania paid her off. She was killing two birds with one stone. She was giving Ailwyn what he wanted, so he would continue to pamper her and she was getting hush money from Titania. I had found out about it whenever I found out about Emma Tolly. That's why I was so interested in Emma Tolly, I didn't want to see another little girl get sold like that." He rested his hand on my hair but I refused to look at him. "I'm sorry that you went through all of that because of us, and I'm sorry you have to continuously go through this because of us. And I'm sorry I have to leave again, but I have no choice. You need to have faith in me, Infinity. Where else do you think you got your cunning? Ailwyn wasn't the only intelligent father you had. Someday, I'll tell you everything. It'll all make sense. But there are people that will try to control your mind. Salem isn't the only person in the world with that power and the Bloor family will enlist many other endowed people for help."

I sat up and looked at him. "I didn't mean to yell at you." I said finally. He smiled and wrapped his arms around me.

"I know you didn't. Just promise to trust me. Trust that I will be okay." He squeezed me tighter.

"I promise."